1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method and system for probing FCode in problem state memory.
2. Related Art
During a boot process or a hot plug operation, FCode of an FCode driver that resides in a PCI card attached to a computing system is probed. During the probe, Open Firmware evaluates the FCode driver in an address space in privileged mode, thereby making any malicious code in the FCode driver a security threat. In circumstances where Open Firmware co-exists in memory with the computing system's operating system, this security threat is especially dangerous, as the operating system may be disabled by the malicious code as a result of probing the FCode. Such circumstances exist when a PCI card is installed at runtime (e.g., a hot plug operation). Thus, there exists a need for an improved technique of probing FCode.